Ever since its introduction, road courses have had a love-hate relationship with the NASCAR fandom. While there are some legendary tracks in the current NASCAR schedule, the sport’s overall push towards road course racing has been a matter of dislike for most of the fans. As such, their latest demands about road courses in the sport came in as a complete shock, considering the differences they’ve had over the past few years.
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It all started with a post on a social media forum about the length of NASCAR races. The original poster asks, “If you could increase/decrease the length of any race(s) on the schedule, what races would you choose?” The answers for the same were leaning heavily towards more racing on road courses. One track that has earned more support from the NASCAR tracks in particular is Watkins Glen.
The classic street circuit has been a part of NASCAR for a long time and a popular one at that. Thus, it is no wonder that fans would want more racing at Watkins Glen. The sentiments suggest that fans believe Watkins Glen does not satisfy their hunger for racing as of now. They want NASCAR to make it longer and more challenging for the drivers.
Other than that, the fandom wants multiple tracks to start hosting 500-mile races again, as they feel like there are not enough of these in the current schedule.
NASCAR community asks for a new road course
At first, the fans were talking about the intermediate tracks, which now host shortened races compared to the past. Kansas and Atlanta are some of the tracks where the fans want 500 miles of racing again.
“I would personally increase one of the Kansas races to 500 miles because Kansas is really good with the next-gen car. The next-gen car being good at intermediates is also why I’d increase the Charlotte Fall race back to 500 miles, because it seems like they’ll keep the name that the Roval race had, so it’ll probably be 400 miles.”
Another fan echoed the same sentiment, asking NASCAR to return to the old ways with these legendary tracks. “I think one of the Kansas and Las Vegas races should be 500 miles. Michigan and Atlanta would also be cool to see 500-mile races at again. Also, Gateway should be a 400-mile race.”
However, the general discussion ended up taking a bizarre turn as soon as fans focused on Watkins Glen. The entire community started rallying around the idea of making Watkins Glen a long race. “Watkins Glen races always seem short; the race can be extended.” I would make Watkins Glen anywhere from 100 to 120 laps. 90 just doesn’t seem like enough.”
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It looks like the Watkins Glen fever quickly caught on in the fandom, as they did not hesitate to shower all their support and love on this one track in particular. “Watkins Glen should be 120 laps. The Glen is too good of a track to be anything under 300 miles. ” One of the fans was more than ready to make it an endurance race that gave the stock cars a run for their money. “Watkins Glen, 500 miles. Endurance day, boys.”
Other than that, it looks like the surge for more road course racing has also prompted fans to request yet another track to be added to the NASCAR schedule. “Road America should be 500 miles, which is 500 more than they currently do.” Road America is one of the best and most popular tracks in the IndyCar series.
They have also hosted multiple NASCAR Cup Series and O’Reilly Series races until the 2023 season. Fans want NASCAR to focus on this legendary track instead of adding tracks that do not have relevance to stock car racing. NASCAR suggested a few days ago that the fans should expect some shocking changes to the schedule in the upcoming season.
It might be a long shot, but the demands of the fans might end up coming true, with the way the sport is trying to rebuild itself around its fanbase again.